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REVIEW


Sunland Peanut Butter Part I: The Taste Test
Product Review by FBWorld Team

Sunland peanut butter is not your average, run-of-the-mill peanut butter. It's made exclusively with the highest quality Valencia peanuts, grown in Texas and New Mexico, and available in a wide range of flavors, from traditional creamy and crunchy, to the not so traditional raspberry and vanilla-cranberry. We were told that Sunland peanut butter was some of the best stuff out there, so we decided to put that claim to the test.

To see just how Sunland Peanut Butter compared with the usual brands, we put them head-to-head in our taste test. We used the national brands like Jiff, Skippy, and Adams as benchmarks. Our panel tasted each benchmark peanut butter and scored it out of ten, based on texture and overall taste. The tasters were given a spoon of each brand's peanut butter as well as a dollop on a Ritz cracker. Each taster scored the samples without input from other tasters. Afterwords, we compiled the scores and averaged them out, rounding to the nearest half-point.

The results were very clear.

TYPE
SCORE / 10
Simply Jiff
4.5
Jiff Creamy
5
Skippy Creamy
5.5
Skippy Super Chunk
6.5
Adams Peanut Butter "Organic"
7
Adams Peanut Butter "100 Natural"
7.5

Next, we tested the Sunland Peanut Butter varietals on our panel and repeated the scoring process.

Valencia Creamy
Going head to head with our benchmark peanut butters, the Valencia Creamy from Sunland is head and shoulders better than the pack. Its superior taste, a very nice balance of creamy and nutty flavors, had no real competition from the national brands.
FBWORLD TEAM SCORE: 9 / 10
  Valencia Natural Crunchy
When compared with the other crunchy peanut butters, the Valencia Crunchy is far superior. There is a great balance between sweet and savory. The chunks of peanut butter are plentiful and very tasty without impeding spreading. Valencia Natural Crunchy like Valencia Creamy is the gold standard in its category.
FBWORLD TEAM SCORE: 9.5 / 10
Valencia Creamy Organic
This has to be the gold standard in both taste and pure nutritional value. It's delightfully creamy as the oil does not over power the rich flavors of the Valencia peanut, which are rich and more robust than in the natural spread.
FBWORLD TEAM SCORE: 9 / 10
  Valencia Crunchy Organic
The entire panel agreed, this crunchy peanut butter is the best crunchy peanut better they have ever tasted. Bold roasted peanut flavors are coupled perfectly with just the right amount of sweetness, and the texture was quite creamy, without skimping on the crunchy peanut bits. We were also blown away by its how well it spread compared to the other chunky peanut butters.
FBWORLD TEAM SCORE: 10 / 10

 

Sunland Peanut Butter Part II: The Flavor Infusions

Besides their traditional creamy and crunchy, Sunland offers a wide variety of flavor infused peanut butters. We had our tasters run through a number of them. He's what they thought of each.

Caramel Natural Spread
Caramel Natural Spread is absolutely heaven paired with raisin toast. The flavor is very authentic and rich, making this more of a desert peanut butter. The consistency of this creamy, and truly smooth for something like caramel, which is typically gooey.
FBWORLD TEAM SCORE: 7 / 10
Raspberry Natural Spread
No need for the raspberry jam anymore. This infusion from Sunland provides all the flavor necessary . It's nice and creamy in texture and holds the fruit and peanut flavors in perfect harmony. The raspberry flavor might be a bit sweet for some, but everyone on our panel enjoyed it very much.
FBWORLD TEAM SCORE: 8 / 10
Dark Chocolate Natural
Dark Chocolate Natural Spread was rich and wonderful. It was a great partner for Banana's. The panel liked it because its texture was not as creamy as Nutella and it had a more authentic chocolate taste.
FBWORLD TEAM SCORE: 8.5 / 10
Banana Natural Spread
The Banana Natural Spread was what peaked our curiosity about Sunland, but, in the end, it was not one of the best flavor. This particular spread was dryer than most of the other varieties and its flavor tasted more like banana chips than actual bananas. The quality of the peanut butter was still very good. The flavoring just wasn't as spot on as the others.
FBWORLD TEAM SCORE: 6 / 10
Vanilla Cranberry Organic
This is not a convention combination, but Vanilla & Cranberry worked surprisingly well together. For people who are looking for a mild taste adventure, this might just be in your wheal-house. Our panel thought it worked best with raisin bread because of the convergence of sweet flavors.
FBWORLD TEAM SCORE: 8.5 / 10
Dark Chocolate Organic
This is an amazing product that is smooth like melted chocolate but has all the health benefits of Valencia organic peanut butter. It was the first jar to be finished off by the staff. The creamy, authentic chocolate taste was perfect for our late afternoon sweet cravings. One taste and you'll probably be hooked like we all were.
FBWORLD TEAM SCORE: 9.5 / 10
Tai Ginger Organic
On it's own, this flavor is a mild adventure, to say the least. The Asian spices give the peanut butter an awkward kick because they flavors aren't in equal proportions. Combined with the right ingredients, we think it could be fabulous for cooking, but none of our tasters would recommend it for your next peanut butter sandwich.
FBWORLD TEAM SCORE: 4 / 10
Onion and Parsley Organic
This was another of the most unorthodox flavors from Sunland. Again, like the Tai Ginger, the convergence of bright onion and parsley flavors with roasted peanut flavors weren't quite in balance. For those with more adventurous taste buds, there could be something to like here, but for our panel, they preferred the other flavors.
FBWORLD TEAM SCORE: 4.5 / 10

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